Seven Benefits of Garlic
For millennia people have used garlic for various culinary and medicinal purposes, but many of the benefits of garlic have been lost or are unknown to the average person in modern society. See how many of these uses you know and/or can apply in your own life.
Garden Pests
Garlic can be used for garden pest control either by planting it strategically, in a system know as companion planting, or by mixing cloves with pepper and liquid soap to use as a pesticide. Either way it can be an effective repellent in the garden.
Mosquitoes
Other pests that garlic can repel are mosquitoes. It is said that something in the plant’s compounds is actually harmful to them, and therefore they avoid it. You can either place cloves of garlic in areas where there are mosquitoes, or put extracts on the exposed parts of your skin.
Pet Pests
Your pets can get protection from garlic too. Fleas, ticks and other parasites do not like garlic. Making sure there is plenty of garlic in your pets diet can go a long way to protecting them. Some brands of pet food include dehydrated garlic, make sure to check the labels. Protect your pet from insects by making sure they have a steady diet that includes plenty of garlic.
Worms and Parasites
Humans are not immune from parasites. In addition to repelling pests elsewhere, there are health benefits of garlic too. It has been confirmed by scientific studies that over time, garlic has been shown to kill tapeworm, roundworm, hookworm, and pinworm.
>> The Good and Bad of Garlic: Understanding its Positive and Negative Side Effects
Skin Care
With antibacterial properties and an ability to equalizes blood circulation, garlic on the skin can be used as a cleanser, and as such can help with acne and other skin ailments. Caution should be taken to an area of the skin tested for sensitivity before general use.
Circulatory Health
Eating garlic can be beneficial for your heart. In addition to equalizing blood circulation, it helps to lower blood pressure, lowers cholesterol and triglycerides, and can counteract the effect of smoking on blood pressure.
Diabetes
Garlic can also lower blood-sugar levels helping people with diabetes. It stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin, which is the hormone that controls sugar usage, and binds chemical receptors that would deactivate the insulin.
There are many other benefits of garlic which you would be wise to discover, but those mentioned here should be enough to show why garlic is something that can be beneficial to everyone.
The Author:
Sandi Baine is a proponent for developing a self sufficient sustainable lifestyle for the betterment of everyone’s life. Steam on!
